Steve Bryant – Thoughts on Success, Music and Media

Taking the vaccine for COVID-19 is a personal choice. Some private companies and organizations may require it, but taking it is still up to the individual. You can simply choose not to deal with the organizations that require the vaccination.

I’m taking it as soon as it’s available, although even though I’m 70, in the hopelessly backward State of California, my scheduled time probably won’t roll around until 2032. I’ll be ready!

I know many people who say they are afraid of how fast the vaccine was developed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s the story:

Back in the 1977-78, I was a new writer/producer for a marketing communications company in the Philadelphia area. While I had been a music major in college, one of the company’s owners liked some writing samples I submitted and took a chance on me. I will forever be grateful to my mentor, Harry Hallman, for going with his gut and hiring me.

As the “new kid on the block,” at an ad/marketing agency, I was often given the jobs that no one else wanted. One of my first assignments was writing a film script for a small startup biotech company that was working on monoclonal antibodies. Their work was so revolutionary at the time that they had been featured on many national news programs.

No Internet in those days. I spent a couple of days in the sub-basement of the main Philadelphia Library, scouring through miles of microfiche reels to learn about the science. The company’s scientists told me that monoclonal antibodies were antibodies that could target specific diseases without destroying healthy cells as most conventional treatments did.

At the Library, I learned that the science, taken to its obvious ends, could eventually cure most, if not all, diseases without harming the patient. As someone who would later endure several 9½ hour infusions for cancer, which, while they cured me almost ended my life in the process, more than ever now, I welcome the technology.

I wrote the script back in the late 1970’s and our company produced a powerful multi-image presentation that the company could show to potential investors. It must have worked, since I heard that they were soon bought by a major pharmaceutical company, making the principals of the company very wealthy.

Even when our company moved to Atlanta, we continued to produce scripts and presentations for similar small companies in various disciplines. Back in the 1980’s, It was mostly software startups. It was the best job I ever had and that includes my 15 years at QVC.

Okay, back to the COVID-19 vaccine. The monoclonal antibody technology that was pioneered over 40 years ago, is the key to why the vaccine works. It’s not something, as I have often heard, that was “thrown together in a few weeks.” The vaccine is based on proven science and over 40 years of dedicated research. I also credit the Internet with its development. Scientists from all parts of the globe shared the research they had been doing independently. The power and effectiveness of this combined genius allowed them to create the vaccine in record time. It is a vaccine over 40 years in the making.

The continued good news is that this technology could eventually end most serious diseases on the planet. Not today or tomorrow, but, sooner than most of us would think.

So again, the decision is yours. I’m not preaching to you about taking the vaccine. Totally your choice. I wish you the best with whatever decision you make. Just remember, it’s a vaccine that took over 40 years to develop. And, if the states ever figure out how to get the vaccine to most of us (are you listening, California?), and I believe they will…eventually…hopefully, I’ll get rid of this stupid mask and hug my friends in person. With their permission, of course.

© 2020 Steve Bryant – No portion of this or any blog can be reproduced or copied and posted on any online site or read aloud on any audio or video media without the express permission of the author.